New Release Wrap-Up: Lykke Li, Rural Alberta Advantage, Mr. Dream

On her sophomore record Wounded Rhymes, sullen Swedish romantic Lykke Li
and returning producer Bjorn Yttling scrap the future-pop of her debut
for a decidedly retro pastiche of girl-group harmonies, doo-wop
melodies, surf guitars and psychedelic organs. It's a drastic shift in
sound, but what strikes the most about the album is its tautness. At 14
tracks long, Li's inspired yet overstuffed debut, Youth Novels, begged for a trim, but Wound Rhymes
flourishes at just 10 tracks, most of them lean and to-the-point.
Credit that tightness, perhaps, to Li's mounting reverence for classic
soul. Where the contemporary electro-pop artists she once modeled
herself after draw out their songs in service of the dancefloor, the
soul singers that now inspire her used their limited track time to go
straight for the kill---an approach that flatters Li, who with her
anguished, expressive voice proves herself a virulent marksmen.

Nils Edenloff's off-key voice still imagines a manic Jeff Magnum on Rural Alberta Advantage's second album, Departing,
and this time the guitars and keyboards that accompany his tantrums are
even nervier---jittery and paranoid, yet desperate for attention. In an
era of sky's-the-limit indie-rock production, Rural Alberta Advantage
are a bit of an oddity: a band with big ideas and small execution. There
are songs on Departing that suggest Arcade Fire's burning anthems, but
instead of adorning them with horns, strings and choirs, the Toronto
trio plays them fast and easy, without bells and whistles (unless some
of those bells are keyboard presets).

You might not hear a record all year more proudly derivative than Mr. Dream's Trash Hit,
a spot-the-reference homage to The Jesus Lizard, Nirvana, The Pixies
and at least a dozen records that Steve Albini produced between Big
Black and Shellac. Original? Nope. Awesome? Yup.

Similarly awesome and only slightly more original: The Two Koreas' Science Island, a lumbering, riff-heavy garage-rock record with undertones of Mission of Burma and Killing Joke.

Also out this week:

* Dum Dum Girls' four-track He Gets Me High EP, which ever-so-slightly modernizes the girl-group garage-pop of last year's I Will Be

* Papercuts' Fading Parade, an ornate, impressive dream-pop record

* The self-titled debut from the first supergroup of the contemporary roots movement, Middle Brother, which unites the frontmen of Dawes, Deer Tick and The Delta Spirit

* The Dropkick Murphy's Going Out in Style, which I believe is the first record to feature guest spots from both Bruce Springsteen and NOFX's Fat Mike

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